1. Not direct; not straight or rectilinear; deviating from a direct
line or course; circuitous; as, an indirect road.
2. Not tending to an aim, purpose, or result by the plainest course, or
by obvious means, but obliquely or consequentially; by remote means;
as, an indirect accusation, attack, answer, or proposal.
By what bypaths and indirect, crooked ways I met this crown.
Shak.
3. Not straightforward or upright; unfair; dishonest; tending to
mislead or deceive.
Indirect dealing will be discovered one time or other.
Tillotson.
4. Not resulting directly from an act or cause, but more or less
remotely connected with or growing out of it; as, indirect results,
damages, or claims.
5. (Logic & Math.) Not reaching the end aimed at by the most plain and
direct method; as, an indirect proof, demonstration, etc.
Indirect claims, claims for remote or consequential damage. Such claims
were presented to and thrown out by the commissioners who arbitrated
the damage inflicted on the United States by the Confederate States
cruisers built and supplied by Great Britain. -- Indirect
demonstration, a mode of demonstration in which proof is given by
showing that any other supposition involves an absurdity (reductio ad
absurdum), or an impossibility; thus, one quantity may be proved equal
to another by showing that it can be neither greater nor less. --
Indirect discourse. (Gram.) See Direct discourse, under Direct. --
Indirect evidence, evidence or testimony which is circumstantial or
inferential, but without witness; -- opposed to direct evidence. --
Indirect tax, a tax, such as customs, excises, etc., exacted directly
from the merchant, but paid indirectly by the consumer in the higher
price demanded for the articles of merchandise.